CISSP
Okay, so after years of putting of taking the CISSP examination (read: trying to get someone else to pay for it) I finally scheduled my exam and took it in April. There are plenty of posts about it, and I don't want to duplicate what others have said, so I'll just put in this small bit:
If you can regularly pass the FreePracticeTest exams online with an 80 or higher, then you are most of the way there. I don't think I ran into a single question on FreePracticeTests(FPT) that was on the actual exam, but they give a *great* fell for what to expect. This means, however, that just learning the answers to FPT won't do you any good.
In my case, I had 10+ years of dedicated info security experience by the time I took the test, plus years of consulting and SA/SE work prior to that, so there was little on there to surprise me. What I did was go out and buy Shon Harris' excellent book and read the chapter titles to see what areas I seemed lacking in (based on the FPT). Really, I only had one weakness, and that was the Orange book stuff, so I read that chapter a few days before the test.
The night before the test I read each of the "quick tips" sections (there is one at the end of each chapter starting with chapter 3 or 4) which are a few pages of...um...quick tips.
That's it. Finished answering well before the 3 hour mark, and finished my double-and triple checking shortly after the 3 hour mark. (I only rechecked questions I wasn't 100% sure about, which was somewhere on the order of 50 or so out of the 250...and in some cases other questions on the test gave these answers.)
One of my peeves is when you are experienced in your field but you have no idea how well that experience will translate to a test. In my case, at least, a half-score of years in IT security seemed to translate well, as I passed my first try.
Good luck to you, if such is in your future!
Oh, and it *did* feel grueling! I was wiped out afterwards. :-)
If you can regularly pass the FreePracticeTest exams online with an 80 or higher, then you are most of the way there. I don't think I ran into a single question on FreePracticeTests(FPT) that was on the actual exam, but they give a *great* fell for what to expect. This means, however, that just learning the answers to FPT won't do you any good.
In my case, I had 10+ years of dedicated info security experience by the time I took the test, plus years of consulting and SA/SE work prior to that, so there was little on there to surprise me. What I did was go out and buy Shon Harris' excellent book and read the chapter titles to see what areas I seemed lacking in (based on the FPT). Really, I only had one weakness, and that was the Orange book stuff, so I read that chapter a few days before the test.
The night before the test I read each of the "quick tips" sections (there is one at the end of each chapter starting with chapter 3 or 4) which are a few pages of...um...quick tips.
That's it. Finished answering well before the 3 hour mark, and finished my double-and triple checking shortly after the 3 hour mark. (I only rechecked questions I wasn't 100% sure about, which was somewhere on the order of 50 or so out of the 250...and in some cases other questions on the test gave these answers.)
One of my peeves is when you are experienced in your field but you have no idea how well that experience will translate to a test. In my case, at least, a half-score of years in IT security seemed to translate well, as I passed my first try.
Good luck to you, if such is in your future!
Oh, and it *did* feel grueling! I was wiped out afterwards. :-)
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CISSP